Trying to escape from Stalag VII A

"My father Private Bob Cree (a printer from Brighton) was
captured in Italy on the 9th December 1944 and interned in
Moosburg from Christmas day 1944 until the camp was
liberated by the Americans on the 29th April 1945. He
didn't say much about the camp but I know that for him this
was the toughest period of the war. There was little or no
food, the conditions were extremely overcrowded and lice
ridden. The day usually involved boredom, cold, hunger and
more boredom. They were also regularly taken out on work
details to Munich to clear the rubble etc. that the Royal
Air Force bombing had caused.

My father said that many films portray the Germans as
idiots but they were smart and escaping was pretty
impossible. However, my father and a friend made a dash for
it whilst en route to Munich. They hid out in a barn and
managed to get some food (eggs), but the German guards
found them. The guards were not too bad but the higher
ranking ones could be unpredictable and violent. He also
said that he felt sorry for the Russian prisoners because
they were treated the worst.

When my father returned home his family almost didn't
recognise him. He was severely emaciated and what was left
of his hair was now like straw from the malnutrition. He
also had a lifelong hatred of Alsation dogs.

If there is anyone out there who remembers a Private Bob
Cree who was in the Lincolnshire Regiment when captured,
then contact me (his son Bob) on: [email protected]."